Courtesy room gives soldiers a 'safe zone'

Michael Wilson came home on Christmas Eve. He flew into
Hancock International Airport, in Syracuse. He had to wait
for a while for his ride to show up.

Wilson, of Newfield, is a private in a National Guard
company based in Ithaca. A year ago, there would have been
nothing for him to do while he waited at Hancock. He would
have ended up sitting in the lobby, tapping his foot, or
maybe grabbing some sleep while sprawled on the floor.

Things have changed. Wednesday, Wilson went straight to the
Gregory J. Harris Military Courtesy Room. That is the formal
name for what is really a simple way of saying thanks. There
is now a room at Hancock, staffed almost around the clock by
volunteers, where men and women in the military can get a
soft drink, or brush their teeth, or sleep in a recliner,
beneath a warm blanket.

"How do I explain what this means?" Wilson said.
"When you first go into the military, they take away
everything and you learn to be appreciative of every little
thing you took for granted. That can fade, but then you go
to someplace like Afghanistan and you learn it again. You
learn to appreciate paved roads. You come back, and no one
understands how nice it is to have paved roads."

Wilson is 19. In Afghanistan, he got a taste of combat.
Last month, his older brother, Rob, died of complications
linked to diabetes. It was the hardest of breaks in what has
been a long year. Wednesday, on Christmas Eve, Michael made
it home, and he waited in the airport for his fiancee to
pick him up.

He felt, he said, as if he were "back in the safe zone." At Christmas, that was the sweetest of all gifts. It was hard for him to put into words how nice it was to have someone to greet him in a courtesy room, someone to guide him into that deep, soft chair....